Mesh networking is a way to route data and instructions between nodes. A node can be any device connected to a computer network. Nodes can be computers, routers, or various other networked devices. On a TCP/IP network, a node is any device with an Internet Protocol (IP) address. Mesh networking allows for continuous connections and reconfiguration around broken or blocked paths by “hopping” from node to node until the destination is reached. Mesh networks differ from other networks in that the component parts can all connect to each other via multiple hops, and they generally are not mobile devices. In a packet-switching network, a hop is the trip a data packet takes from one router or intermediate node in a network to another node in the network. On the Internet (or a network that uses TCP/IP), the number of hops a packet has taken toward its destination (called the “hop count”) is kept in the packet header.
Wireless mesh networks employ intelligent nodes typically including a wireless (e.g. radio) transmitter and receiver, a power source, input devices, sometimes output devices, and an intelligent controller, such as a programmable microprocessor controller with memory. In the past, wireless mesh networks have been developed having configurations or networks for communication that are static, dynamic or a hybrid of static and dynamic. Power for these networks has been supplied either via wires (the nodes are “plugged in”) or from batteries in each node. As the size, power, and cost of the computation and communication requirements of these devices has decreased over time, battery-powered wireless nodes have gotten smaller; yet, the computing demands on the wireless nodes have increased.
Wireless mesh network technology can be used for deploying sensors as nodes in a variety of different environments for monitoring diverse parameters such as, for example, temperature, pressure, particle counts, and humidity. These types of networks can be denoted wireless sensor networks (WSN). Each sensor in a WSN is typically powered by a battery and therefore has a limited energy supply and operational capability. Because the sensors are constantly monitoring the environment and communicating with other nodes, it is important to efficiently manage the power consumed by each sensor. Further, it is important to monitor the operational status of each of the sensors.
Given that most WSN devices are battery powered, the overall network lifetime depends on the efficiency with which sensing, computing, and data transmission by the sensors can be achieved. Because the power requirements for wireless communication by the sensors are orders of magnitude higher than the other sensor operations, it is critical that operation of the radios on these devices be managed carefully. This is primarily achieved by turning the radio on only when devices need to send and/or receive data. The operational lifetime of the network, thus, depends on the ability to identify and schedule wakeup and sleep times for the radios in the wireless network nodes.
Time division multiple access (TDMA) is a well-known channel access method for shared medium (usually radio) networks. TDMA allows several users to share the same frequency channel by dividing the signal into different timeslots. The users transmit in rapid succession, one after the other, each using his/her own timeslot. This allows multiple stations to share the same transmission medium (e.g. radio frequency channel) while using only the part of the available bandwidth. The timeslot definition and allocation in TDMA, however is usually determined globally for all nodes. It is therefore harder to modify the timeslot definition and allocation in TDMA if the network configuration or communication requirements change.
In CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access With Collision Avoidance), a station that wants to transmit a packet first listens to the shared channel for a predetermined amount of time to determine if the channel is busy or not. If the channel is sensed idle, then the station is allowed to transmit. If the channel is busy, the station defers its transmission. Once the channel is clear, a station sends a short signal telling all other stations not to transmit, and then sends its packet. In Ethernet 802.11, the station continues to wait for a random amount of time (to reduce the probability of collision), and checks to see if the channel is still free. If it is free, the station transmits, and waits for an acknowledgment signal that the packet was received. CSMA/CA is used where collision detection cannot be implemented due to the nature of the channel. CSMA/CA is typically used in 802.11 based wireless local area networks (LAN's); because, it is not possible to listen to the channel while sending. Therefore, collision detection is not possible. Another reason is the hidden terminal problem, where node A, in range of the receiver R, is not in range of another node B, and therefore cannot know if B is transmitting to R.
In Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) systems, a fixed-size data cell is transmitted in a channel-specific time period of fixed duration during which a unit of communication occurs between two fixed terminals without conflict. The motivation for the use of small data cells in ATM networks was the reduction of jitter (delay variance, in this case) in the multiplexing of data streams. The reduction of jitter (and also end-to-end round-trip delays) is particularly important when carrying voice traffic. Again however, the cell definition and communication in ATM is fixed and non-adaptable.
Wireless sensor networks are often deployed in adverse environments that contain significant amounts of radio frequency (RF) interference/noise. This noise can arise from machinery (such as pumps), electronic equipment (such as microwaves and wireless phones), or other network devices that operate in the same frequency range. The RF noise will often lead to network packet losses and packet corruption. In some cases, the RF noise may render the entire network inoperable and unreachable. It is important in such adverse wireless networking environments to minimize the impact of RF interference on network operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,369 describes a technology for use in a wireless packet communication system having a plurality of nodes, each having a transmitter and a receiver, the receiver at each node is assigned a seed value and is provided with a channel punchout mask. A node uses its seed value and punchout mask to generate a specific randomly ordered channel hopping band plan on which to receive signals. A node transmits its seed value and punchout mask to target nodes with which it wants to establish communication links, and those target nodes each use the seed value and punchout mask to generate the randomly ordered channel hopping band plan for that node. Subsequently, when one of the target nodes wishes to transmit to the node, the target node changes frequency to the frequency of the node according to that node's band plan.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,590,928 describes a wireless network including master and slave units. The master sends a master address and clock to the slaves. Communication is by means of a virtual frequency hopping channel whose hopping sequence is a function of the master address, and whose phase is a function of the master clock. Transmitted inquiry messages solicit slave address and topology information from the slaves, which may be used to generate a configuration tree for determining a route for a connection between the master and slave units.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,480,497 describes a technology for use in a mesh network communication system, where net throughput is optimized on the link between the communicating nodes by dynamically modifying signal characteristics of the signals transmitted between nodes in response to performance metrics which have been determined from analysis at the receivers for the corresponding links. The signal characteristics can be the data rate, modulation type, on-air bandwidth, etc. The performance metrics are calculated based on data-link on-air characteristics of received signals.
U.S. Patent Application No. 20070258508 describes a method and apparatus for communication in a wireless sensor network. In one embodiment, one or more routers in a network may be available for communication with one or more star nodes at a randomized time and/or frequency. A connectivity assessment, which may be performed at several different frequencies and/or times, may be performed to evaluate the quality of communications between devices in the network. Primary and secondary communication relationships may be formed between devices to provide for system redundancy. One or more proxies may be maintained where each proxy includes a status of one or more devices in the network, e.g., one or more star nodes or routers. Proxies may be used to handle information requests and/or status change requests, e.g., a proxy may be requested to change a communication relationship between devices in the network and may generate command signals to cause the corresponding devices to make the change.
Thus, an apparatus and method for adaptive channel hopping in a mesh network are needed.